Photo du Jour: The Selfie Promenade

For The Self Promenade, photographers Luisa Dörr and Navin Kala document the many selfies shot along the Avenue of Stars in Hong Kong, where young people from around China travel for shopping, sightseeing, and photo-ops. As selfies become an ever more popular form of self-expression, Dörr and Kala suggest that these kinds of images are a means of asserting the self in a world dominated in large part by Western, and particularly American, popular culture.

As they pass from adolescence into womanhood, these girls explore their modern identities within the context of the larger cultural history celebrated in the plaques that line the Avenue of Stars. Lining up for their own personal selfies, they are at once united and individualized, together and independent. Dörr explains that the light along the avenue falls at times without casting a shadow. Here, the girls need not compete even with their own shadows for the spotlight, each proudly sharing her face with the world.

Image © Luisa Dörr and Navin Kala 2014